Hunted – 46

As soon as they landed in Brice’s new house, he released his grip on Faolán’s shoulder and realized, somewhat shocked, that he wished he didn’t have to. But that was neither here nor there at the moment.

Logan and Skye arrived seconds later. Logan immediately looked around and commented, “Damn, they work fast.” The ground floor, from what he could see of it, was to all intents and purposes almost finished.

Brice nodded. “I’ll probably be able to move in by the end of the month if I want to, according to Morgan. There are still bits and pieces that need to be done but overall it’s close to completion.”

Faolán wandered around silently to check out the living and dining rooms. He returned a few minutes later to say shortly, “Not too bad.”

Logan caught Skye’s grin and nodded. He suspected, from the look on his face, that Faolán was more impressed than he was willing to let on.    

“The panic room’s on the second floor,” Brice told them. He started up one of the sweeping staircases with the others right behind him. As he reached to hall he stopped, then swore vehemently.

“What?” Faolán asked. “Oh hell.”

“Oh hell is right,” Logan agreed as he stared down at the body that lay, quite obviously posed, in the center of the wide hall. “Guess Maximus knows about this place.”

Skye gasped but didn’t look away. “He… Can we castrate him before we kill him, like he did this poor man?”

“Works for me,” Logan growled. “From the look on what’s left of his face, it happened before Maximus finally killed him.”

Brice stiffened his back and said with determination, “That does it! I need to stop him before he harms someone else.”  

“We need to,” Faolán replied. He put a hand firmly on Brice’s shoulder. “We both owe it to ourselves, and to all those he’s hurt and destroyed, to end this a soon as possible.”

“What about..?” Skye pointed to the body.

“I’ll take care of him. I know, well I knew him,” There was pain in Faolán’s quiet words as he knelt beside Maximus’s victim. Seconds later he and the body were gone.

“A pack member,” Brice said softly. “Not one I knew but…” He shook his head then stared angrily off down the hall. “This stops now you bastard,” he called out.

Skye hugged him for a moment. “Then we’d better get to work.”

After he drew in a deep, ragged breath Brice nodded. “The room’s down there. The paint and nitrate should be inside, if Morgan did as I asked.”

“That’s one good thing then, because hopefully it means Maximus didn’t see them,” Logan said.

“Hopefully.” Brice strode down the hall and stopped in front of a door. It opened to reveal what to all intents and purposes was a small storage room lined on both sides with shelves. The back wall was empty. There was a double light switch by the door. Brice pressed one side and half of it popped open to reveal a keypad. He typed in the code and the back wall moved sideways. Behind it was the panic room.